The dramatic increase in the use of sport and recreation equipment during the 1980s and 1990s has created a substantial market for vehicle mounted equipment racks. Although exercisers and outdoor enthusiasts rack everything from kayaks and canoes to sailboards and surfboards, bicycles are still one of the most common pieces of equipment carried on cars, pick-up trucks and sport utility vehicles. A variety of different vehicle equipment racks and bicycle carriers are commercially available. Top mounted racks are the most popular. Top mounted racks, however, are often hard to use, particularly with bicycles and on taller vehicles like sport utility vehicles and pick-up trucks. Rear mounted racks are less popular than top mounted racks despite the fact that they are easier to reach, perhaps because some rear mounted racks must be removed to access the rear of the vehicle while others afford only limited access to the rear of the vehicle.
Bicycles are carried horizontally, that is with the wheels aligned horizontally with one another, on both top and rear mount equipment racks. The horizontal orientation of the bicycles on rear mounted racks limits the number of bikes that may be carried because each bike increases the length of the vehicle and each bike progressively increases the torque load on the rack. In the rear mounted swing out rack shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,664,717, for example, each bicycle is carried behind the preceding bicycle. Each bicycle (or empty bicycle carrying bracket), therefore, extends the length of the vehicle by approximately 6 inches and progressively increases the torque loading in direct proportion to the ever increasing distance from the rear of the vehicle.